After facing years of complaints about service, cleanliness and safety, the CTA faced a major test this week at the Democratic National Convention.
With tens of thousands of politicians, dignitaries, protesters and media in the city, the agency was tasked with bringing Chicago to a national audience while continuing to serve ordinary residents as they traveled across the city. And by many accounts, the week was marked by clean trains and stations and reliable service.
Some Illinois delegates wondered if the experience could be the same on the CTA all year long.
“They absolutely rose to the occasion,” said state Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado, a member of the Illinois delegation, who said she used the CTA frequently throughout the event.
“If only it were this clean every day,” she added later. “If only there were this many people on the train every day.”
Although Chicago is accustomed to hosting much larger events (trade shows often draw more visitors than the DNC was designed to attract, and Lollapalooza regularly hosts 100,000 attendees a day), the made-for-TV event brought unique security challenges and national attention, as well as months of city beautification efforts.
The CTA faced pressure to step up its efforts. Stations were cleaned. New artistic exteriors were to be applied to CTA cars before the convention, courtesy of the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. The CTA planned to add additional train service on the Blue and Orange lines, which serve the city’s two airports, and on the Green line, which connects the United Center and McCormick Place convention venues. Later, after the convention began, the CTA announced that it would also add service after the evening convention activities on the Blue line, which also runs near the United Center.
Extra police officers were also on hand at some stations. About 200 employees volunteered to answer questions, guide visitors and help travelers navigate DNC-related changes over the weekend and Monday, the agency said. And in addition to public service preparations, the CTA provided dedicated buses to transport convention attendees.
The CTA has not been immune to DNC-related shutdowns, however. On Monday, trains along the Blue Line’s Forest Park branch were delayed 50 minutes due to a shutdown caused by an unplanned march, the agency said. Some buses were also rerouted due to the protests.
In a statement, the CTA said recent hiring of operators — an ongoing effort to address a shortage that has limited service — has allowed it to provide more bus and train service.
“Planning and managing rail and bus services for events like the DNC is a core area of CTA’s expertise and long history,” the agency said.
The CTA’s efforts were a pleasant experience for Delgado, who said she took the train several times during each of the four days of the convention. It was the best option for getting around, she said, in traffic that was difficult to manage as rental cars flooded the streets and motorcades and security barriers closed the roads.
Delgado, a Chicago Democrat who worked for the CTA and supports legislative efforts to reform transit governance, praised CTA employees who were visibly there to help out-of-towners navigate the system. She saw transit agency staff, noticing crowds of people walking from convention events to stations, call to hold arriving trains to wait for the crowds.
The shuttles provided to transport convention attendees were initially less efficient than the trains, and were stuck in traffic from the first day, she said. The buses, provided by the CTA, took an apparently circuitous route to the opening night’s activities at the United Center, she said, around the same time that protesters broke through the first security perimeter fence around the arena.
After 45 minutes in a stalled shuttle, Delgado got out and walked the remaining blocks to the security perimeter, she said.
The next few days, the shuttles seemed to work much better, she said. But the experience convinced her to use the train more often.
Delgado praised the CTA’s ability to respond to major events. But if, during regular service, the same efforts were made to keep the CTA clean and provide a pleasant experience, perhaps more passengers would return.
“If the attention given this week could be maintained all the time, I think it would make a huge difference in attracting more people,” she said.
Overall, CTA ridership during the convention increased on the Green Line because of convention events and protests, the agency said, citing preliminary information. But fewer regular riders rode the line, and overall ridership on buses and trains was down “modestly” from the previous week, a spokesperson said.
One of the week’s passengers was state Rep. Kambium “Kam” Buckner, a Chicago Democrat and transit advocate. Buckner said he was impressed by the cleanliness of the trains and stations, and the quality of service throughout the week.
Returning Sunday from Minnesota, where he was working for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, he took the Orange Line from Midway Airport, experiencing what a convention-goer would see. And the train service was running smoothly, he said.
He rode the Pink and Green lines during the convention and said he wished the trains were more widely used. But as the week went on, more and more people seemed to be taking the train.
“We probably could have done a better job of promoting the fact that the CTA was an option, because the traffic was crazy,” he said.
Public transportation can play a key role in promoting the city to visitors, like those in town for the convention, who could potentially be future Chicago residents, he said. It shows how the city can work for employees, tourists and students.
And the levels of service and cleanliness Buckner experienced at the convention should be available to Chicago residents at all times, he said, calling for work by the CTA, other area transit agencies and city and state governments.
“What we can take away from this is that we have the ability to do this at any time,” he said. “We just have to find a way to make it matter, which hasn’t seemed to be the case recently. And we have to change that narrative.”
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